Chinch bugs return to Calgary lawns this spring with a vengeance

What started as an issue for Calgary homeowners living in southeast communities has now spread to lawns across the city.

Chinch bugs are small insects that feed off of grass by sucking the juices out. While they're feeding, they inject a toxin that kills the plant. Telltale signs of the pests are dead patches in a healthy lawn where there are no pets present.

"This used to only be a problem the southeast, Copperfield, Auburn Bay, Mackenzie areas," said James Szojka, the owner of Yard Dawgs Lawn Care. "That's where we were doing 95 per cent of applications, this past year though we were in every single quadrant of Calgary, including Airdrie and Chestermere to treat the bugs."

Szojka says chinch bugs breed extremely fast and thrive in hot, dry weather. The bugs will migrate from lawn to lawn and they can completely annihilate a yard in as little as one season.

"What's interesting about this year so far is it's been very dry and very hot," he said. "Usually in May it's raining quite a bit so right now we're already starting to see some signs of chinch bugs starting to pop up."

HOME REMEDIES ERRATIC

Szojka says that cold Alberta winters don't kill the bugs because they find space under trees and shrubs to hibernate and then come out in the spring ready to kill more lawns. Szojka says there are home remedies listed on the web along with garden centre products homeowners try to use but in many cases are unsuccessful at eradicating the chinch bugs.

"As commercial applicators, we have access to much higher quality products," he said. "It's not much more expensive but what's more important is saving your lawn because re-sodding the lawn can be anywhere from $6,000 to $10,000 depending on the size and the access that a landscape would need to get to your property."

Szojka says chinch bugs breed extremely fast and thrive in hot, dry weather. The bugs will migrate from lawn to lawn and they can completely annihilate a yard in as little as one season.

YARD DAWGS

Nathan Tobias is the operations manager at Yard Dawgs and oversees 10 operators responding to calls all over the city. He's revisiting a northwest property with an infestation of chinch bugs that he last saw in the fall.

"It absolutely blows my mind just how crazy fast this happens," he said referring to all the dead patches in the yard. "I was here last year, notice they had some (bugs), we were only able to get one spray in before the end of the year and clearly we need to keep treating these here which is very important because the damage has just continued to spread."

The lawn belongs to Parul Mehta who says the family moved into the home one year ago.

"The lawn was so beautiful," said Mehta. "It was all green but late July, August we started seeing the yellow patches and notice that the grass is getting dead."

The family has lived in Canada for 22 years and moved around the country but have never heard of chinch bugs.

"One of our friends from southeast also got this type of same thing happening," she said. "He called us and we were told that this is what we found, so you better contact someone and get it investigated as well."

Szojka says spray application begins in mid-June because that's the best time to attack the pests and in some cases it takes more than one visit to kill all the bugs.

"If you don't treat it over time your lawn will be killed," he said. "They're going to take enough nutrients from the blades of grass where the roots are completely dead and the solution really is to re-sod the lawn or to completely reskin it."

Szojka recommends calling in a professional to diagnose the problem with a lawn and even phoning for a second opinion from another professional to confirm the issue. 

Learn more about chinch bugs here.